SES has announced plans at AfricaCom to launch SES Broadband, a flexible and customised high-speed broadband service, in five African countries - South Africa, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria.

The two-way communications platform offers up to 1 Gbps for both customisable data rates and fixed packages, with more than 99.5% service availability, and is supported 24/7 by a highly-responsive operations team. SES Broadband empowers regions, countries, and businesses to maximise their potential by offering high-speed broadband.

Krasimira Bozhinkova, Vice President, Data Portfolio Management at SES said, "The socio-economic impact of broadband access in empowering people has been proven and is growing. Our new platforms simplify the process of getting connected without limiting the experience. High-speed broadband is attainable over our platforms, and customers can be ensured of a high quality of service, an enhanced application experience and the responsiveness that is expected.

"In anticipation of customers' demand for faster broadband connectivity in the next few years, SES will continue to invest in platform innovation to adopt new and more efficient technologies that can work seamlessly with next generation high throughput satellite architecture."

SES Techcom services and Newtec expand Astra Connect broadband service
In other news, SES Techcom Services has announced that it will be expanding its Astra Connect broadband service in Africa for the Enterprise and Oil and Gas markets via the Newtec Dialog multiservice platform on SES's ASTRA 2G satellite.

SES is extending its current relationship with long-term partner Newtec - a specialist in designing, developing and manufacturing equipment and technologies for satellite communications - by the new platform, which is due to be launched in Q1 2016 and will utilise the West Africa Ku-band beam of the ASTRA 2G satellite, located at 28.2 degrees East.

The platform will broaden SES Techcom Services' current portfolio and flexibly support different services, be it for consumer, Small Office, Home Office and SME customers, or for Enterprise and Oil and Gas customers.

Newtec Dialog supports MF-TDMA and SCPC technologies, as well as Newtec's Mx-DMA technology, increasing bandwidth efficiency and service reliability for enterprise applications and enabling those services to run more cost-effectively and reliably than before.

"There are millions in Africa who remain unconnected today and at SES we are eager to connect them via satellite broadband services," said Gerhard Bethscheider, Managing Director at SES Techcom Services. "By using Newtec's new platform, our broadband offerings are efficient and scalable, and can be offered cost-effectively to our customers."

Newtec's CEO Serge Van Herck said, "As a multiservice platform, Newtec Dialog guarantees optimal modulation and bandwidth allocation, whether it is being used for enterprise, consumer broadband, cellular backhaul or mobility - and all of this combined in one single network. We are pleased it is meeting SES Techcom Services' needs and are grateful we are extending our partnership in this way."